Great Cannon
Description :"An advanced form of Magick Cannon that conjures a sphere of magickal power, and fires more rounds of spellshot at foes." Great Cannon conjures a magickal floating orb or sigil, which, when struck by a wide variety of attacks, including both friendly and enemy attacks, emits balls of magick that target and seek out enemies to damage them. The Great Cannon sigil takes on the enchantment of the equipped sword or mace - if the weapon was temporarily enchanted, the sigil will take an appearance appropriate to the relative Archmagick. A Great Cannon sigil persists for 18 seconds, 50% longer than Magick Cannon. Each orb is no more powerful than the single Magick Cannon orb, though there are three generated instead of one. Damage Great Cannon does both physical and magickal damage and scales very approximately with a 2:3 split of the caster's Strength and Magick stats. Thus both strength and magick boosting potions and charms increase damage. Enchanting the summoning weapon prior to casting the sigil increases the sigil's damage. *The magick damage is thought to depend in a ratio of 3:1 on the caster's base and weapon magicks. *The physical damage depends only on the weapon's attack strength, omitting the wielder's base strength. *The physical portion always deals Blunt Damage. *Since the Great Cannon scales from both magick and strength, it performs a split-damage attack against both damage thresholds. Due to Great Cannon's mixed damage it can strike any enemy in Gransys, from Ghosts to Golems. However, when targeting magick-resistant objects such as Metal Golem discs, only weapons with high physical stats will cause damage; a low level weapon such as Obliteratrix may do no damage at all to those discs via the Cannon sigil, even if used by a high-level, powerful Arisen. This is likely a consequence of the attack power being independent of the wielder's own strength. Each single strike of the sigil produces three orbs. Skills with multiple strikes will produce multiple sets of orbs. For example, a single blow of Onslaught produces one set of three orbs; Downcrack two sets, one from the inward strike, and one from the outward; Compass Slash produces four sets, and Full Moon Slash produces five sets from a single use. Orb power from a sigil struck with the weapon used to incant it is independent of the skill used - thus the key factor in damage is the number of strikes during the sigil's existence. For Onslaught, 24 strikes can be made before the sigil dissipates; with Compass Slash 15 strikes can be made to produce 60 sets of orbs; while with Full Moon Slash 9 uses can produce 45 sets of orbs. Thus skills such as Full Moon Slash can produce more orbs and damage, but at a cost of higher stamina use. Range and Targeting *The Cannon orbs have good range, similar to standard shots from bows or longbows. Unlike arrows, and like most spells, damage is constant over distance. The range limit is over one Drake length from head to tail tip, but not as great as the same measure of the Ur-Dragon. *A Great Cannon bolt can target foes that are too far away for them to reach. The orb will travel along the trajectory towards its target, but fade before striking - and thus do no damage. *If multiple Great Cannon sigils are set, bolts from the nearest cannon may be absorbed into the second, negating the advantage from multiple sigils; chained cannons can, however, single-fire in sequence around corners, target the other side of a large enemy, or be used to extend overall range. *The orbs are generally produced in a spread around the path from the weapon wielder through the sigil. Each orb will target the nearest object along its own path; if nothing is in view they can make sharp turns to target other foes. *Orbs may not target certain things until struck by a genuine physical attack; an example is Metal Golem discs. Tactics Up to three cannon sigils can be summoned at one time, however, summoning and firing two spheres in conjunction with each other is the most effective use of this spell. One sphere often does lesser damage, whilst the time to place three means that by the time a third is placed on the field, the first sphere is likely about to fade. If a fourth sigil is cast the earliest existing sigil will vanish. Activating the Sigil In addition to the Arisen striking the Sigil using any physical skill or attack, the cannons can be triggered in many ways. *The Cannon can also be combined with Perilous Sigil or Ruinous Sigil. When an enemy strikes a Perilous or Ruinous Sigil, it will trigger the cannon to fire in that direction and deal additional damage. *Many 'friendly' attacks can trigger a cannon sigil, including: **A Pawn's Magick Agent **A Pawn Sorcerer's electric field from Fulmination, as well as the conjured elements of Bolide, Maelstrom, Gicel, Miasma and so on. **Pawn blows directly on a Great Cannon sigil, such as a swing from a Warrior's blade, or dagger strikes. **AoE fields from pawn bowfire, such as Tenfold Flurry spreads or Downpour Volley ** Beacons lit within Bitterblack Isle ** Shield attacks, including Perfect Blocking enemy attacks within the sigil. This is especially effective if the magic shield has been previously charged with one of the Mystic Knight Shield Counters, specifically the holy based ones such as Blessed Riposte. *Some enemy attacks will fire the sigil, such as a heavy physical attack from a Dragon's charge. Enemy spells do not generally fire the sigil, even when the equivalent spell would (e.g., Miasma) Other *Use with Holy enchantment for long range damage plus healing. *The sigils and orbs can also transmit debilitations from the weapon used to strike it, such as Silence from Golden Weapons or Torpor and Poison from Rusted Weapons. * Melee pawns with a Utilitarian inclination are likely to shoot or strike a Cannon sigil with physical attacks and fire it. *Overlapping the area of effect from two spaced-out Ruinous Sigils and then placing a Great Cannon sigil in that overlap increases damage output of these spells by tripping all three even if an enemy only crosses the border of one Ruinous Sigil. This allows the Mystic Knight to control or choke off a greater area of the battlefield. Notes * The Gazer's Eye sigil, supported by four tentacles that charge it to full power, is a Great Cannon. If this sigil is struck by Arisen or pawn—regardless of their vocation—the Gazer's Great Cannon orbs automatically target its creator. The Gazer is extremely vulnerable to those orbs. *All conjured Cannon sigils will disappear instantly if the player switches from sword or mace to a staff. *When using a permanently-enchanted elemental weapon, one may notice that the orbs it produces do not take on the appearance of the element of the equipped weapon like it does when a temporary buff is applied via a spell. This is purely visual: the orbs can be witnessed to do elemental damage and effects. *There is a limit as to how many Great Cannon orbs can be in flight at one time. Once the limit is reached, the oldest orbs will disappear as new orbs take their place. Thus, it is strategically more effective to have two Great Cannon sigils in place rather than three so orbs are not subsumed by successive blows on the Great Cannon. *Abyssal Anguish has no effect on Great Cannon sigils. It's shockwaves are equally inactive. * The club of a disarmed Cyclops interacts in an unexpected way with a Great Cannon sigil - causing an force on the cyclops via the club. For example, if the sigil is placed on the NE side of the club the cylops will be forced to slide in a SW direction. Damage notes *Damage is boosted by both Strength and Magick damage boosting periapts and potions. *Stat boosting equipment also increases damage. *Additional temporary Weapon enchantments are added to magick power increasing damage. *If the weapon used is not enchanted the cannon orbs are Neutral Magick. *Augments such as Clout (+20% strength) and Acuity (+20% magick) also increase damage. *An exact damage formula has been suggested [ http://imgur.com/7zzVGdu ] . but does not match all cases : :::Total Damage = Physical Damage + Magick Damage :::Magic Damage = 38.5 + 1.5xMAG + 0.5xWeapon_MAG - Foe_Mag_DEF :::Physical Damage = 0.5xWeapon_STR - Foe_Phy_DEF Gallery Magick cannon cast.jpg|casting Magick cannon charge hold.jpg|charge hold Magick cannon orb generating.jpg|orb forming Magick cannon orb.jpg|orb at rest Magick cannon the swing.jpg|the swing Magick cannon projectile.jpg|the projectile Magick cannon projectile 2.jpg|its outta here! Great-cannon.jpg GreatCannonCyclops.jpg Category:Skills Category:Sword Skills Category:Mace Skills